How To Avoid Burnout as a Busy Personal Trainer

Building up a personal training career can be quite challenging especially if you haven't got any other streams of income and your livelihood depends on having enough clients. That's stress enough in itself and many newbie trainers might be willing to anything to fill their calendar, including pulling 12-15hr days between 6am and 8-9pm. 

​​Working with multiple different clients with unique schedules means that you might need to sacrifice your own time in order to truly grow your business. It’s an extremely demanding position to be in and requires some serious discipline. But even the most hardened entrepreneurs can occasionally feel burnout, so here are a few tips to help you manage it and ideally avoid it the next time.

1. Take a power nap

Power naps can be surprisingly helpful in dealing with burnout. A quick mid-day nap can improve your patience, it can lower your stress levels, and helps you stay alert. However, power naps are not for everyone. If you're already sleep deprived, attempting power naps might confuse your body clock even further.

So, power nap is for the trainers who need a quick pick-me-up in the day but otherwise their sleep is great. And remember, a power nap is meant to be short, varies from people to people but normally between 15-20 minutes. If need be, set an alarm to avoid dozing off completely.

2. Fix your diet

As a personal trainer, you should be well aware of the effects that your diet has on your health. In case you need a quick refresher, here are some tips:

• Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables each day.
• Get the right amount of protein and carbs to give yourself energy throughout the day.
• Drink plenty of fluids each day to stay hydrated.
• Eat regularly to sustain your energy levels.

A healthy and balanced diet will be a great help to keep your mind focused and also improve your overall health so you can avoid burnout.

3. Supplements for energy

Supplements can be a great way to boost your energy, but you shouldn’t consider them miracle tablets that will instantly cure your problems. You will probably know that they won't be able to fix lack of sleep and dietary inconsistencies, that's why they're called supplements. 

They can be a great addition to ensure you take in enough of certain nutrients, especially through winter time to help balance out your diet. You can also try various herbs and energy supplements that are known to help reduce mental and physical fatigue while also improving your focus. Just keep in mind, that you might need professional advice if you're not versed in supplements. Don't be afraid to ask for it!

4. Set a realistic work schedule

When you first get started as a personal trainer, you might feel like you have to take on as much work as possible and do everything you can to please your clients. But at the end of the day, if you take on a lot more than you can handle, you risk not being able to perform at your best during sessions and eventually hitting the wall. One of the keys to avoiding this is setting a realistic work schedule.

Now, until you start taking on clients, you may not know what is realistic for you and that's OK. If you have other commitments like kids, another job, then you'll have some idea when you have capacity. But if your main focus is training clients, you might want to take advice from some of the trainers in our Facebook community: decide which half of the day you want to see clients and stick to it.

​E.g. some trainers like to do early mornings till after lunch, others the other way around. You can even have days with different schedules if you want, to accommodate for morning and evening clients on separate days. Just make sure you don't end up living in the gym every day.

5. Drop a client

If you feel like you’re constantly working and are always in contact with multiple different clients, then you may have bitten off a bit more than you can chew. Don’t underestimate the time and commitment it takes to work with a single client.

​Set some limitations to how many clients you’re willing to work with and consider dropping a client or two if you can’t handle the workload. It’s never easy to drop a client, but the lesson here is that you should never take on more work than you can handle.  On another note, you might find it frees up some energy and time for you to work on other things you enjoy.

6. Increase your prices

Increasing your prices achieves several things:

• You get paid more for the same amount of work.
• You can decide to work with fewer clients to earn the same which means less time at work, more time for fun.
• You’ll get a bigger reward for your time and effort.

Increasing your prices may seem like a dangerous strategy that puts off some people, but it’s one of the best ways to help manage burnout.

Not to mention if you keep improving your skills, taking on new courses while also putting the hours in to gain experience, eventually your expertise will be worth more than when you started. Reviewing your prices every year or every two years is part of the process of getting better at what you do.

7. Get a coffee

A quick coffee isn’t the worst idea when you need a little boost of energy, especially if you only take it when you need it. Consider it as a supplement and you'll find having one or two coffees a day might just make your day that much smoother. The best times are midmorning and early afternoon, so your circadian rhythm isn't affected. 

8. Ditch the coffee

The other end of the spectrum is personal trainers who have a coffee in their hand all day. If that's you, maybe consider cutting back or ditching the coffee completely for a time to see the difference.

According to the EFSA, up to 400mg caffeine per day is harmless for non-pregnant adults. A 16oz coffee is about 330mg so maybe two smaller or one big coffee a day is considered ok.

If you find that you already rely too much on caffeine then you might want to start avoiding it. Building up a reliance on coffee can lead to a number of problems that will harm your focus and increase stress, so try to ditch it if you find yourself chugging several cups throughout the day just to stay alert.

9. Prioritise sleep

If you’re working long days from early morning till late at night it can be difficult to make time to actually sleep. However, sleep should be a priority that you focus on, so here are a few tips to ensure you get a good night’s rest:
 

• Build a regular sleep schedule and go to bed at the same time each day.
• Stop all caffeine up to 6 hours prior to going to bed.
• Stop looking at your phone in bed.
• Start a bedtime routine to get your body and mind ready for bed. This can include taking a bath, reading a book, or doing a bit of light exercise.

10. Start a journal

Lastly, a journal can be a great way to clear your mind and help you deal with confusing thoughts before bedtime. Science also says there are 83 benefits including stress and anxiety management, so if you feel overwhelmed a lot, give it a go to see if it helps you. 

​By simply writing down some things about your day and collecting your thoughts, you’ll find that it can help you stay focused and deal with any negative experiences that you had during the day. It will also help your brain and body to relax setting you up for a better sleep quality.